How Stainless Steel Ruled the Watch World
Scroll through Instagram, peek into shop windows, or glance at the wrists around you, and notice just how many watches are made of stainless steel. Sure, you’ll spot the occasional flash of gold, ceramic, or even carbon composite, but the overwhelming majority are cased in steel.
The usual story credits Rolex with turning watches from haute horology gold pocket watches into modern steel wristwatches. But the rise of stainless steel was as much about material innovation as it was about one brand’s prestige. Stainless steel pulled the watch down from the jeweller’s pedestal and onto the everyday wrist - tougher, cheaper, and built for real life.
This shift from precious to practical was born of wartime necessity and economic hardship. And it’s the story of how watches stopped being ornaments and started being tools.
The story of stainless steel itself is almost accidental. In 1913, English metallurgist Harry Brearley was experimenting with low-carbon alloy steel for rifle barrels in Sheffield when he stumbled upon a remarkably resistant material. This laid the groundwork for the Brown-Firth Research Laboratories to develop “Staybrite Steel” in the 1920s, which was a lower carbon steel used for watchmaking among other uses.
Unlike gold or silver, prized for its shiny finish and rarity, stainless steel is unapologetically practical - industrial, durable, and designed to endure. So it’s no surprise that the first steel watches were made for the ultimate test: military service.
We know the story. Wristwatches, as opposed to pocket watches, became essential during the Boer Wars and World War One. Soldiers needed a hands-free way to tell time while holding weapons, and many military uniforms, especially in hotter climates, lacked pockets for traditional pocket watches. Early military watch cases were usually silver or brass: soft metals that were easy to machine and shape, but far from resilient. It was during WWI that the first stainless steel pocket watches were deployed, prized for their durability on the battlefield.
Even so, gold and silver remained the civilian norm until 1929, when the Wall Street Crash triggered the Great Depression. Economic hardship shifted tastes; consumers now wanted durability and affordability. Staybrite-cased watches, being hypoallergenic, rugged and most importantly cheap, became increasingly popular, and by the mid-20th century, stainless steel wasn’t just a wartime innovation, it had become the standard for everyday watches. Rolex’s part in the story has been polished and retold time and time again, but the real revolution wasn’t just about Rolex, it was metallurgy.
The civilian embrace of stainless steel watches picked up momentum in the late 1920s, triggering a handful of Swiss manufacturers to begin systematically producing Staybrite steel cases and bracelets. Names like Taubert & Fils (successors to François Borgel), S. Graber, Huguenin Frères, La Centrale, Schmitz Frères, Kessi Frères, Epsa, Etoile, Louis Lang, and the bracelet specialist Gay Frères (now part of Rolex), supplied this new everyman watch industry with steel cases and bracelets.
These small Swiss workshops churned out steel cases and bracelets for a wide range of brands, from everyday wearers to respected names in mid-tier horology: JLC, Omega, Tissot, Longines, Doxa, Universal Genève, and Movado among others.
The steel trend trickled up, so much so that Taubert & Fils even progressed to haute horology, producing cases for Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin as high-end waterproof steel watches and steel chronographs gained popularity, albeit still in infamously small numbers.
One fascinating “case study” (pun intended) illustrates the industry at that time perfectly: an early waterproof Doxa and the Patek ref. 565 (Patek’s first waterproof watch) share the exact same bezeless stainless steel case from François Borgel, despite occupying opposite ends of the Swiss watchmaking spectrum.
What began as a material born of military necessity had, by the mid-century, trickled into high-end Swiss horology. This trickle-up reached its crescendo at the 1972 Basel Fair, when Audemars Piguet, seeking to make a statement amid the quartz crisis, unveiled the Royal Oak: a luxury, highly finished sports watch, with a bold price tag - and, notably, in Staybrite stainless steel. The military-grade metal had officially gone haute.
Developments in stainless steel made the dress watches shinier while also taking dive watches deeper. Staybrite wasn’t quite perfect in its corrosion resistance. And as brands started making watches specifically for scuba diving in the late 60s, corrosion from salt water had to be addressed.
Rolex, Omega and Seiko are known to be the earliest adopters of a new type of steel for their dive watches, called 316L. 316L adds molybdenum to its alloy, which makes it far more resistant to pitting and staining, especially from saltwater and sweat. The “L” indicates low carbon, meaning it’s less prone to carbide precipitation and therefore more stable and easier to machine or polish, while also keeping its finish longer. So iconic divers like Doxa’s Sub 300 and Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms could endure the saltwater without the need for a tap-water rinse.
But the ability to hold a sharp edge and a mirror polish also meant the high-end dress watches now being made in steel, such as the aforementioned Royal Oak along with Patek’s Nautilus, could be shinier and resist patina. Seiko took this to the next level with their zaratsu polishing method, resulting in a perfectly flat polished surface which doesn’t distort reflection - like a miniature mirror finish.
Despite its strengths, 316L still had limitations: prolonged exposure to saltwater could eventually tarnish the case. Aware of this, Omega turned to a higher-grade alloy when developing its professional deep diver, the Ploprof. Their French metal supplier referred to it as ‘Uranus Steel’, a variant now recognized as 904L. Rolex later adopted 904L as well, refining it into their own proprietary blend still in use today.
904L takes corrosion resistance a step beyond 316L, with higher levels of chromium, nickel, and molybdenum, plus added copper for exceptional resistance to acids, chlorides, and other harsh environments that can mark or pit 316L. It also polishes to a brighter, whiter luster, which made it attractive to Rolex for both durability and aesthetics. The trade-off is that 904L is harder to machine and more costly to produce, but in return offers superior toughness and a more luxurious finish.
Today, I see two distinct paths emerging in tool watchmaking metals. On one hand, brands are embracing titanium for its corrosion resistance, anti-magnetic properties, lightweight feel, and darker, moodier aesthetic. On the other, some are doubling down on innovations in stainless steel.
Seiko, long associated with titanium (they produced the second-ever titanium watch in the 1970s), this year unveiled the Grand Seiko SLGB005 ‘Violet Dawn,’ crafted in their proprietary Ever-Brilliant Steel (a 904L alloy). Microbrands are also pushing the boundaries of steel: Sinn’s U1 diver sports a 44mm case made from the same regimented (heat-treated) steel used in the German Navy’s Type 212 submarines, while British brand Schofield has created a special edition of their Obscura in Damascus steel, whose dark and alien finish catches the light in striking ways.